


Found Tonight

by vega_voices



Series: The Secret Knowledge of Water [4]
Category: Star Trek: Picard
Genre: F/F, it doesn't have to be long and lingering, love after 40, release, season 1: finale, two women just finding each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-01
Updated: 2020-04-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:21:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23437615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vega_voices/pseuds/vega_voices
Summary: She didn’t need love letters sent across subspace, hands touching the screen as they hoped for the next, best outcome. She’d tried that once. No, all she wanted was release.
Relationships: Raffi Musiker/Seven of Nine
Series: The Secret Knowledge of Water [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1686049
Comments: 10
Kudos: 54





	Found Tonight

**Title:** Found Tonight  
**Author:** vegawriters  
**Series:** Take On Me  
**Fandom:** Star Trek: Picard (ST: Voyager, ST: TNG)  
**Pairing:** Seven of Nine/Raffi  
**Rating:** Mature  
**A/N:** I didn’t need the build up for Seven and Raffi. They’re two adults, who have been through hell, and sitting there over a drink, they connected. Their eyes met and they realized something could be there. One of the most beautiful things about the romantic relationships in Picard is that they weren’t dragged out, they weren’t built up to be this OTP concept. They were adults finding themselves bored, scared, and broken, and in that moment, they were able to come together. When Raffi and Seven’s hands touched, I cried. Because it just … worked. This is that story. For me. (And is this tangentially connected to my Imzadi series? Of course it is, because all of my stuff is connected …) In short, thank you, Michael Chabon.  
**Disclaimer:** Dear God I wish I owned this. I love this world, this universe, this series, these characters so much. I love Michael Chabon’s concepts. And if he can come up from the fic world, maybe I can too. But until then … I don’t make any money off of this. I’m just filling in those gaps.

 **Summary:** _She didn’t need love letters sent across subspace, hands touching the screen as they hoped for the next, best outcome. She’d tried that once. No, all she wanted was release._

It wasn’t that this wasn’t Raffi’s style. Hell, it was completely Raffi’s style. Hit em hard, love em and leave em, anything to fill the void and get back to where she belonged - in her own pile of self-loathing. She didn’t need lingering love, not after the divorce, not after losing everything. Just something other than her vibrator to get her through the night.

And, if she was completely honest with herself, she’d figured that despite staring at Seven’s ass the entire time they were making their way to Freecloud, nothing was going to happen with the xB ranger who shot bigger guns than all of them combined. And she was okay with that. It wasn’t like she’d planned to stay with the ship. It wasn’t like Seven was hitching a long-term ride. They were both looking to disappear and at least Seven had the gumption to try and do something good in the universe. Leaving Freecloud, all Raffi had wanted to do was drink herself into oblivion and never wake up. Rios, herself, and her horgul, that was all she needed in life, and she’d never tell Rios she needed him. Raffi wasn’t looking for a passionate love affair that would carry her to the ends of eternity. She didn’t need love letters sent across subspace, hands touching the screen as they hoped for the next, best outcome. She’d tried that once. No, all she wanted was release.

Dear Stars of Betazed, she got it.

Release came late at night, after JL had opened his eyes, before this motley bunch headed up to the _La Sirena_ , before the Mother of Androids boarded the ship with her daughter, and the grandfather of all. It came when the moons glowed red in the sky above, between lighting strikes, at the hour when the darkness was all that offered forgiveness. Release came in the form of a tall blonde standing in the doorway to her sterile quarters. It came in whiskey-drenched kisses, long fingers sliding up her thighs, legs entwined as they moved together, shaking through the body’s exorcism of stress. Of mourning. Raffi didn’t need access to Seven’s personal logs to see the guilt and loss she carried with her. It was there, etched into her eyes, reflected in the implants that would forever mark her as one of them, as tainted and broken and turned away. Not quite synthetic. Not quite human. Always and forever a queen.

Release came again and again, without a single word uttered between them, until the sky turned from dusky to ruby to blue and the suns rose over distant mountains. It came in arms draped across bare stomachs, in hair tangled on pillows, in silent rising and laughter as they stumbled to from sonic showers to discarded clothes to a silent kiss before the day began with a simple, “See you later,” from Raffi as Seven moved to the door.

Seven stopped and turned her head, her elegant chin pointed over her shoulder, her blue eyes somber and cautious. Finally, she spoke. “I’m coming with you,” she said. “I owe it to Elnor. I owe it to Hugh’s memory. I … Picard needs someone around him.” Ever slowly, a soft smile touched her lips before finally moving to her eyes. “The xBs don’t need me,” she said. “They have the synths here. But I suspect, I can do more good … out there.” She quirked an eyebrow. “That won’t be a problem, will it?”

“How do you know I’m staying on the ship?” Raffi countered, feeling her own smile touch her face. She wanted to laugh. Instead, she sat on the bed that smelled of sex and booze and the sweat of sleep and stared at the woman she’d been staring at since she boarded before Freecloud. Silence. A raised eyebrow. A smile. “Won’t be a problem for you, will it?” Raffi countered, avoiding her own feelings.

“I hope not,” Seven taunted. Long, purposeful steps brought her back to Raffi’s side and the kiss curled her toes. “See you on board.”

Raffi blinked and then Seven was gone. Out the door and gone, somewhere, until she stepped onto the ship that night, a duffel over her shoulder and a bottle of whiskey in the other. She winked at Raffi and Raffi could only roll her eyes to push away the butterflies in her stomach.

She didn’t need this. She only wanted release. She didn’t need love or crushes or ties that bound her to another. But there she was, watching Seven’s ass make her way down to a cabin, and pretending she wasn’t waiting for her to return, to take the seat at the table in the mess, to put the bottle between them, to meet her eyes.

“Hey,” Raffi ventured. Did she dare do this? She should leave last night on the planet, right there with the synths and the drama and the lifted ban and the legends that had driven an entire culture for millennia. But Seven’s eyes were impossibly blue and she quirked her lips in a way that promised nothing while offering everything. One night didn’t mean love, but for the last fourteen years, one night was all she’d ever given herself. Lovers didn’t stay, and she hadn’t wanted them to. They got in the way of the snakeflower and the whiskey and her obsession over the Federation’s involvement in the attack on Mars. They got in the way of her personal goal of slow and painful self destruction.

So, when Seven’s hand touched hers, Raffi linked their fingers. The devil on her shoulder shouted in her ear but ignored her and leaned in to press her forehead to her lover’s.

“This could get messy,” she cautioned.

“It always is,” came the response. “So, let’s do the important thing.”

“What’s that?”

“Save the galaxy.”

The laugh bubbled out of her and Raffi threw her head back, feeling the first layers of her protective wrapping loosen. They didn’t fall away, but she felt the shift and when Seven squeezed her hand, Raffi repeated the gesture. Around them, the shift was coming to life and they both jumped up, following the call of Rios.

They had work to do. If somehow along the way, release became redemption, well, that might be too much to ask. But they’d have some fun along the way.

And maybe, somehow, they’d save the galaxy, too.


End file.
